General SSMIS Information

I. BACKGROUND

The SSMIS instrument is the DMSP follow on insrument to DMSP SSMI/T1T2 instruments. This data can provide a variety of microwave - derived information about atmospheric temperature and moisture as well as surface products. The information is similar to NOAA’S AMSUA & AMSUB instruments. Below is a table of the different sensors .

Table 1: Comparison of Microwave Sensors

{source: MSPPS Users Manual, Feb 2002, QSS Group, Inc.}

AMSU A/B		SSM-I/T/T2		SSM-IS
Freq. (Mhz)	Footprint (km)	Freq. (Mhz)./Polar.	Footprint (km)	Freq. (Mhz)/Polar.	Footprint (km)
		19350 / H & V	43 x 69	19350 / H & V	73 x 47
23800	48 x 48 - 80 x 150	22235 / V